Cruise to Mexico

So last weekend (not the one we just had but before) ... Let me start over, Conference Weekend we got to go on a little weekend cruise to Ensenada, Mexico! Chad is doing so great with Aflac. He is in the top 5 districts in the state many weeks. That is awesome but even more so since he is a rookie district! Sorry I have to brag about my sweetie a bit. He kicks butt and Aflac has been so good to us. So since he has been doing such a great job, Aflac likes to reward you. He hit his requirements for State Convention and so we got to go on this little cruise for free! It makes it so much more fun when you don't have to pay for it. So we dropped the girls off to Todd and Anna on Thursday night since we had a very early flight to catch on Friday. We were up late packing until about midnight all the while knowing we had to get up at 3:30am to get ready and head off to the airport to get there early since we were on standby. (Aflac gave us $600 to use to travel to California. We pocketed the money and got some buddy passes from good ole cousin Kurt. We love Kurt!) So since we were up late packing we were bound to forget something. But I will get to that later.

We get up and head off to the airport. We did not get up as early as we had hoped since we went to bed late ... Soooo we missed the 6am flight. Luckily there was another one at 7:20am that I had checked on to just in case. We get into LAX and it is a nice day. A little chillier than Phoenix but the sun was shining and it was nice. We find a shuttle to take us to the ship. As our life flashes before our eyes as our driver nearly kills us many times we arrive at the ship a little more car sick than when we got into the van. We are WAY early, since we are not allowed to board the ship until 11:30 and it is 9:30a but we were able to pre-board and totally miss all the lines. Since we had time to kill we decided to wander through the Queen Mary. Somewhere between the airport and sickening van ride, the weather had gone south a bit. I was freezing! Okay so my blood has thinned A LOT since moving to Arizona, but the breeze from off the water added with the sun hiding somewhere in the clouds makes me cold. I was really glad that I remembered a light jacket, but it was in our bag which we had already given to the porter. Queen Mary was fun and we learned a lot about her. She was an amazing help during the World Wars and helped to transport many young mothers and their babies, as well as soliders across the Atlantic. It must have been hosting the Miss USA, United States, America or something since there were beauty girls all over with their little sashes. So we were constantly asked to get out of the way because they were on camera interviewing and such.

On the Queen Mary

All the pelicans lined up on the ropes

I was sent to the isolation ward. I would not have wanted to go to surgery on a ship!

The Carnival Paradise

Seeing if his arms were long enough to hold the ship .... nope

We finally get on the ship and it was really nice. We hung out with a few other Aflac Agents and then went off to discover. We played a little shuffle board (which is actually rather fun), played bingo, watched a few shows, I even was in the speed slots finals! I didn't win though. I would have liked the $500 prize. Oh well. I got a tee shirt out of it.







We stopped at Ensenada to port. It was Chad's first time in Mexico. He wasn't too impressed. Everyone kept bugging you saying, '4 shots of tequilla and 2 margaritas for only $20!' Chad quickly learned to say 'Los Mormon' and the guys would throw their hands up and say 'Oh sorry man.' It was pretty funny. We got out Rx at the pharmacy and got the girls some little dresses. Then we went to the bar with Chads Regional manager Shawn his wife Autumn and another agent and her hubby. They all had their beers and what nots while we drank our coke. We were pestered by everyone while we were hanging out. Then this guy comes to ask about shining our shoes. He would polish your white tennis shoes. It would take him like 10 minutes on each shoe. There was only one guy at our table that had on the right type of shoes. He was charging $1 per shoe. So Chad pays him for only 1 shoe on the gals hubby. It was really funny, so then he had to pay for the other one. But man he did a great job. Then all of the sudden the waiters came up to Shawn and start taking off his backpack (he was our pack mule for our drugs :) and his sunglasses. They say 'A guy inside bought you a drink.' He was another Aflac agent. Then put a giant sticker over his eyes, lean him back in a chair and pour some tequilla down his throat then have two guys pick him up in the seated like position and rock him back and forth. They almost dropped him on his head. Now, Shawn is not the type of guy you do this too. He was ticked. If they had done anything else, I think he would have punched the guys. I am so glad I don't drink.



We did get the 'Cruise Bunny' made for us with our towels. It is fun how creative they get with them. We did see a book they sold on how to make all sorts of animals.




We get back on the ship and just take a nice nap. Saturday night is the Captains night. So that means elegant evening attire. So when we went to pack for the Cruise everyone said, 'Oh you just wear your bathing suit and a tank top the whole time.' So that is how I packed. Note to self, you need to pack clothes for both the day and dinner. I did pack a nice dress but since we were packing late at night, I forgot the jacket that I wear overtop of it to make it garment friendly. The dining room that night was, if you had 'beach' attire you were not going to eat there. I really didn't want to eat pizza, fried chicken when I could have nice good food. So I was only half Mormon that night. I know shame on me. I will remember for our next trip though. My jacket along with Chad's windbreaker jacket were both sitting on our bed where we left them when we got home. Anyway, the elegant night was fun. It was great to get dressed up. Hard to walk in heels when the boat is swaying but was fun. We watched one of the comidians that night too.

Yup we bought the cruise pics. Us on the Captains Night.


Sunday was just a relax day and at the end of the day we found out that another couple that was on the Aflac trip with us from Flagstaff was also LDS. We should have asked sooner. Us along with 3 other couples played family feud in one of the couples staterooms that night. Good times. Then it was up and adam early to disembark. Our deck was scheduled to get off at 6:45am. They had to have all 2000 passengers off by 10am so they could clean and get the next cruise starting to board at 11:30am. Wow they run a tight ship...ha..ha..


We had a great time and thought I would post about it. It has been a crazy week since we got back getting laundry and everything back in order. Then getting everything ready for Super Saturday this weekend, and I won't be here for. We leave on Wednesday to San Diego compliments of Chad kicking butt and qualifying for National Convention. It is nice to be able to get away just the two of us. Well it is now 11:30pm and I have a busy day tomorrow to get everything ready and pick up my mom tomorrow night. So I know you all can't wait to read about our next trip. Hopefully if Chad keeps things up like he wants to, we will get to go to the Bahamas to the Atlantis Resort for a week in February!!!